Technically speaking, I think that counts as assault. I’ve just been shouted at, beaten with bass, drop-kicked with drums, kerb-stomped with keyboards. It hurt a lot. And sounded great. Beautiful messy enormous noise. Tiring, not tiresome. Mark E Smith wandering about a lot, turning knobs on things in a manner that suggests he knows what he’s doing, but not necessarily convincing. Singing/shouting into two microphones at once, alternate ones, other peoples. Having a go on the keyboard himself if he fancied it, hitting the odd cymbal. No respite. For an hour or so. No muses on the wonders of Oxford, no telling us we were a great crowd, just a second or two to allow them to let any feedback out for a moment, then right on with the next track. No encore. Seemingly. Let people leave, put the lights up, put music on, do everything to convince people they are doing, then come back on for one last ten minute workout of noise Ah. The ringing and static has mainly subsided now, drained, but sated, for now.
Tag: event
-
Luminox
Well Luminox was utterly spectacular. Here in Oxford, they’ve closed off Broad Street for three days, and allowed some French artists to set up some huge displays of fire lanterns. There was a ball of fire and a chandelier of fire amongst others, some almost ambient music playing with a couple of great singers singing live over it, huge crowds, and mainly a lot of fire.
I went down tonight on my own to take pictures, along the way bumping into a couple of people from work doing the same thing (Hi Al!). I’m still very much getting used to my camera, so compared to some of the other pictures I’ve seen on Flickr thus far mine don’t look that great, but it was very good practice on that count. Our plan for Saturday is to take a couple of friends down who are visiting to see it. I got the impression that more might be happening later on in the evening, so I might get to see some different things then.
It was simple a wonderful thing to see, so many people enjoying something quite unusual, particularly for Oxford. I can’t wait to go again!
